A wide variety of different fiber optic connectors have been developed. Fiber-to-fiber fiber optic connectors have been developed to couple pairs of optical fibers together, and fiber-to-module fiber optic connectors have been developed to couple optical fibers to optical device modules. Relative to traditional metal connections, optical fibers have a much greater bandwidth, they are less susceptible to interference, and they are much thinner and lighter. Because of these advantageous physical and data transmission properties, efforts have been made to integrate fiber optics into computer system designs, metropolitan area networks (MANs), and wide area networks (WANs).
In order to achieve efficient and reliable transmission of optical data signals, optical components in the signal path must be aligned precisely. When aligning optical network components, there are three main elements which must be aligned precisely: the active regions of optoelectronic devices that transmit and receive the optical data signals; the optical lenses that focus and direct the optical signals; and the optical fibers that carry the optical data signals between the transmitters and receivers. Because optical fibers have such small dimensions, however, the alignment of these fibers with other fibers, lenses and optical devices is difficult and costly. Various factors affect the optic transfer efficiency at a connector including (a) gap separation at the point of abutment, (b) lateral separation due to axial misalignment, and (c) optical reflections within the connector.
Fiber optic connectors have been developed for single fiber cables and multi-fiber cables (e.g., parallel ribbon cables that include a plurality of optical fibers aligned in parallel). Exemplary fiber optic connectors include MAC™-type connectors, MPO-type connectors, and MT-RJ-type connectors. Many fiber optic connectors include an MT ferrule with two protruding alignment pins. The alignment pins help users to connect mating connectors in proper alignment and help to maintain mated connectors in fixed alignment during use.